Imperfect Union
Page 47
“no Union with slaveholders”: Ibid., 6.
BLACK REPUBLICAN . . . FRAUD UPON THE PEOPLE: “Black Republican Imposture Exposed!” 1856 pamphlet, Frémont papers, LOC.
United States totaling $960,614: Ibid.
$107,875 worth of horses and supplies: Ibid.
formally requesting an investigation: JBF to Elizabeth Blair Lee, August 12, 1856, Herr and Spence, Letters, 122; National Era, August 14, 1856.
“I have no room for prisoners”: Bancroft, History of Caliifornia, vol. 5, 1846–48, 171.
“Quite at the beginning . . . courteous dignity”: JBF and F. P. Frémont, Great Events in the Life of Major General John C. Frémont, 205.
“As booksellers” . . . “regenerate the Government”: “Great Sale of Booksellers,” Charleston Courier, September 25, 1856.
on “tremendous walks”: JBF and F. P. Frémont, Great Events in the Life of Major General John C. Frémont, 205.
coffee and fruit: Ibid.
“market baskets of mail matter”: Ibid.
Jessie cull the newspapers: Elizabeth Benton Frémont, Recollections, 77.
“could not have withstood” . . . “wanted a square fight”: Ibid.
“while the hearty laughs . . . rang up to the roof”: JBF and F. P. Frémont, Great Events in the Life of Major General John C. Frémont, 205.
“gave me all the pain intended”: Ibid.
“Jessie Circle” . . . “admirers of Mrs. Jessie Fremont”: “The Jessie Circle,” Charleston Mercury, August 15, 1856.
“It is now admitted . . . regulate the affairs of the nation”: Ibid.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a mother of seven: Ginzburg, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 9.
“taking my watch with the baby from midnight to six”: JBF and F. P. Frémont, Great Events in the Life of Major General John C. Frémont, 205.
“a small, swarthy individual” . . . “was never divorced”: “Col. Frémont,” Richmond Enquirer, June 27, 1856.
“which by the way I have still managed to keep him ignorant of”: JBF to Francis P. Blair, August 25, 1856, Herr and Spence, Letters, 132.
“If, as alleged . . . disqualified from being President”: “Frémont Not Eligible to the Presidential Office,” Ohio Democrat, September 11, 1856. This article quotes the New York Express, which in turn quotes the Richmond Whig.
FREMONT’S ROMANISM ESTABLISHED . . . MOST FOUL COALITION: Undated campaign pamphlet, Frémont papers, LOC.
mistakenly referred to him as Catholic: Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 368; “Items of Fact and Fancy,” Portage Sentinel, March 27, 1856.
“made no secret of it”: “Frémont’s Romanism and Col. Russell,” Daily American Organ, August 20, 1856.
a Catholic rather than a Protestant symbol: “The Romanism of Frémont,” Daily American Organ, July 31, 1856.
“doing much damage”: Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 369.
“we shall lose Pa., N.J., Inda., Conn., & the Lord knows how many other states”: Ibid., 370.
MORE EVIDENCE; FREMONT A MOHAMEDAN!: “More Evidence—Frémont a Mohamedan,” Demoine Courier, September 25, 1856.
“We bring this charge . . . Catholic and a Protestant”: Ibid.
“but he never was at any time . . . that Church”: JBF to Elizabeth Blair Lee, July 23, 1856, Herr and Spence, Letters, 119.
“The charge is losing votes for you”: Elizabeth Benton Frémont, Recollections, 78.
“Then I must lose them . . . matter of politics”: Ibid.
“With our knives we dug a shallow grave, and . . . left them among the laurels”: JCF, Memoirs of My Life, 492.
decision was “a mistake”: Gienapp, Origins of the Republican Party, 371.
“I would go with him . . . punishment to such slanderers”: JBF to Elizabeth Blair Lee, August 12, 1856. The letter refers to both the Catholic charges and the California-related charges. Herr and Spence, Letters, 125.
“Mr. Frémont says . . . my confessional”: Ibid., 124.
restore “family harmony”: Chambers, Old Bullion Benton, 421.
“parties founded on principle . . . with which the name a member of my family is connected”: Ibid., 422.
“order, law, and justice”: Ibid.
“Father is very much changed I think” . . . “interest too in public affairs”: JBF to Elizabeth Blair Lee, September 16, 1856, Herr and Spence, Letters, 137.
featured the state’s governor: George, “Mechem or Mack: How a One-Word Correction in the ‘Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln’ Reveals the Truth about an 1856 Political Event.”
“Fellow countrymen” . . . “this should not be the case”: Fehrenbacher, Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings, 1832–1858, 376–82.
“You who hate slavery and love freedom . . . principle of equality”: Ibid.
THE LATEST NEWS . . . for gambling purposes: “Received by Magnetic Telegraph,” New York Tribune, October 17, 1856.
alleged without evidence that the Democrats had stuffed ballot boxes: “Board of Aldermen,” New York Tribune, October 16, 1856.
“Republican reader! is your township or ward organized . . . save this nation”: “Two or three months since,” New York Tribune, October 21, 1856.
“defeated . . . a little fishy on the Catholic question”: New York Mirror, quoted in Washington Star, November 3, 1856.
“Clerk, Fred Douglas” . . . “‘anti-slavery God’”: Washington Star, November 5, 1856, reprinted in the State Capital Fact of Columbus, Ohio.
“one of the largest and most enthusiastic” . . . “graced the meeting by their presence”: “Workingmen’s Mass Meeting at the Academy of Music,” New York Tribune, November 1, 1856.
had chosen to attend the event: Ibid.
“extended its refining . . . my whole life”: Ibid.
in the theater box sat Jessie Benton Frémont: Jessie mentions her attendance in a letter to Elizabeth Blair Lee, November 2, 1856. Herr and Spence, Letters, 142.
“the curse of human Slavery” . . . “the Republic shall cease to exist”: “Workingmen’s Mass Meeting at the Academy of Music,” New York Tribune, November 1, 1856.
“Post Master please send as soon as read” . . . “Telegraphs will do the rest”: JBF to Elizabeth Blair Lee, November 2, 1856, Herr and Spence, Letters, 142.
“marched around the town in procession” . . . “and the coffin burned”: “Honors to Frémont,” Daily Dispatch, November 11, 1856.
HOW LIBERTY BEARS DEFEAT: “How Liberty Bears Defeat,” New York Tribune, November 11, 1856.
an armistice between the sections: The New York Herald, which had been promoting Frémont for 1860, printed the Charleston and Richmond reactions to it (April 17, 1857).
“The audience included more outre specimens . . . the opposite sex”: “Women’s Rights Philosophy and Philosophers,” New York Herald, November 27, 1856.
“women were urged to attend . . . the party of progress”: Herr, Jessie Benton Frémont, 277.
“We are subsiding” . . . “I like here”: JBF to Elizabeth Blair Lee, November 18, 1856, Herr and Spence, Letters, 146.
“a fierce sleeting rain that makes man and beast go on their way with bowed heads”: JBF to Francis Preston Blair, January 31, 1856, ibid., 148.
EPILOGUE
“an emblem of national unity and power”: “The Inauguratory Ceremonies,” New York Herald, March 5, 1857.
“I owe my election . . . hearts of the American people”: James Buchanan, inaugural address, March 4, 1857, American Presidency Project.
“speedily and finally settled”: Ibid.
“History shows . . . socially or politically”: Roger Taney, Dred Scott v. Sandford, reprinted in Washington Union, March 11, 1857.
“all men are created equal” . . . “would be so understood”: Ibid.
“too clear for dispute” . . . “flagrantly against the principles which they asserted”: Ibid.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand” . . . “ultimate extinction”: Lincoln speech, June 16, 1858, Fehrenbacher, Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings, 1832–1858, 426–34.
“Why can we not have peace?” . . . “geographical lines”: Ibid., 789–90.
Senate “retiring rooms”: New York Tribune, reprinted in the Daily Gate City, September 2, 1865.
“three hundred reliable” . . . “defence of the City”: Moore, Sweet Freedom’s Plains, 88.
“foundation of civilization” wrote: Stanley, “Senator William Gwin: Moderate or Racist?”
“known throughout the length and breadth of the land”: Benton, Thirty Years’ View, vol. 1, iv.
his great-nephew Thomas Hart Benton: Their family relationship is described in Wolff, Thomas Hart Benton: A Life, 17.
“mainly evolving him from my inner consciousness”: Theodore Roosevelt to Henry Cabot Lodge, June 7, 1886, Morison, ed., Letters of Theodore Roosevelt, vol. 1, 102.
soldier with saber drawn guarded the door: Sherman and Fellman, Memoirs, 180.
345–46 “Now” . . . “decision against all listening”: JBF and F. P. Frémont, Great Events in the Life of Major General John C. Frémont, 270–71.
“excellent company” . . . “done to the General”: Emerson, Journals, vol. 9, 382.
“Passage to India! . . . The road between Europe and Asia”: Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, 322–23.
de facto president of . . . the Memphis, El Paso, and Pacific: Cardinal Goodwin, who extensively researched the railroad, found no evidence John formally held the title. Goodwin, John Charles Frémont, 242.
convicted by a French court in 1871: Chaffin, Pathfinder, 483.
Thousands of newspaper articles: A database search of selected US newspapers from 1875 to 1889 found 2,293 page references to “John C. Frémont,” 1,049 to “General Frémont,” 835 to “Gen. Frémont,” 321 references to “Jessie Benton Frémont,” and 692 to “Mrs. Frémont.” The single word “Frémont” appeared 44,637 times. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers database, LOC, author search January 1, 2019.
retelling of John’s four-hundred-mile horse ride: “Endurance of Mustangs,” Saturday Journal, September 23, 1876.
“GENERAL FRÉMONT . . . been without income”: “General Frémont,” Daily Intelligencer, June 5, 1878.
“It was no great disappointment” . . . “debarred her”: “Jessie Benton Frémont,” Vancouver Independent, April 22, 1880.
“deserves its name . . . great-hearted we have found it”: JBF to William Morton, October 7, 1878, Herr and Spence, Letters, 449.
“for the death” . . . “life is hard on women”: JBF to Elizabeth Blair Lee, July 29, 1883, Herr and Spence, Letters, 497.
“I close the page” . . . “conflict among men”: JCF, Memoirs of My Life, 602.
voted for him in 1856 and felt he owed his fortune: Lavender, The Great Persuader, 9.
tickets, letters of introduction along the route, and expense money: Herr, Jessie Benton Frémont, 428.
“impossible” . . . “upon his defeat”: Bigelow also credited John’s ties to Thomas Hart Benton for his large vote totals; he either misremembered Benton’s opposition or believed that the public considered Benton an asset to John regardless of that opposition. Bigelow, Retrospections of an Active Life, vol. 1, 144.
“his wife” . . . “hanged himself”: JBF, unpublished memoir, 48–49.
Preuss became “deranged”: “Death of Charles Preuss,” Washington Sentinel, September 3, 1853.
SOURCES AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
dismissive mentions of John in their memoirs: Sherman and Fellman, Memoirs, describes JCF numerous times, particularly 42 and 179–81.
“Kit Carson, King of Guides”: by Albert W. Aiken.
burned by his sister, Lily . . . housecleaning: Chaffin, Pathfinder, 503.
“a vagrant by instinct—one might almost say a vagabond”: Goodwin, John Charles Frémont, 259.
“chastened in style and much enlarged in content”: Nevins, Frémont: Pathmarker of the West, vii.
“used psychiatric techniques”: Rolle, John Charles Frémont: Character as Destiny, xiv.
Bibliography
ARCHIVES, BOUND LETTERS, MANUSCRIPT COLLECTIONS, AND OTHER DOCUMENTS
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American State Papers, 1789–1838. Library of Congress.
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____. Mr. Benton’s Anti-Compromise Speech. Washington, DC: June 10, 1850.
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____, ed. Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings, 1859–1865. New York: Library of America, 1989.
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Gudde, Elizabeth and Gudde, Erwin, ed. Exploring with Frémont. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1958.
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Jackson, Donald, and Mary Lee Spence. The Expeditions of John Charles Frémont. 2 vols. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1970, 1973.
Lee, Robert E. “Map of the Harbor of St. Louis, Mississippi River, 1837.” Washington, DC: US Army Corps of Engineers, 1837.
Martin, Thomas S. With Frémont to California and the Southwest 1845–1849. Edited by Ferol Egan. Ashland, OR: Lewis Osborne, 1975.
Morison, Elting E., ed. Letters of Theodore Roosevelt. 4 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1951.
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MEMOIRS AND HISTORIES
Abbott, Lyman. Reminiscences. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1915.
Adams, John Quincy. Memoirs of John Quincy Adams. Edited by Charles Francis Adams. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1877.
Arrington, Leonard J. American Moses. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1986.
Baker, Jean. James Buchanan. New York: Henry Holt, 2004.
Bancroft, Hubert H. History of California, vol. 4, 1840–45. San Francisco: The History Company, 1886.
____. History of California, vol. 5, 1846–48. San Francisco: The History Company, 1886.
Bartlett, Ruhl Jacob. John C. Frémont and the Republican Party. Columbus: Ohio State University, 1930.
Bay, William Van Ness. Reminiscences of the Bench and Bar of Missouri. St. Louis: F. H. Thomas, 1878.
Benton, Thomas Hart. Thirty Years’ View. New York: Appleton, 1858.
Bigelow, John. Memoir of the Life and Public Services of John Charles Fremont. New York: Derby and Jackson, 1856.
____. Retrospections of an Active Life, vol. 1, 1817–1863. New York: Baker and Taylor, 1909.